THE CONTRARIAN
nutritionist and conditioning coach, Mackie Shilstone, devised a highly specific plan that cut down Spinks’ lengthy roadwork, increased his weight training and explosive movements, and targeted a fighting weight of a maximum of 203 pounds at 7.1% body fat.
any weight. The future Ring light heavyweight champion nullified most of Alvarez’s offense and kept him at the end of his technically perfect blows for 12 rounds, silencing the crowd in Las Vegas and shocking the bookmakers who’d instilled Bivol as a heavy underdog.
was comfortable staying out of the ring unless it was for the biggest fight possible – this one. In terms of “daring to be great” scenarios, going all-in for what’s potentially your last fight is as audacious and laudable as it gets. Crawford’s decision to leap up two
Nutritionally, Spinks ate 4,500 calories with 65% from carbs, 20% from protein and 15% from fats. In modern times, this sounds quite standard, but in 1985, it was scoffed at by even the most revered of boxing’s intelligentsia. “Nutrition sucks. Wind sprints suck too. And if I catch a fighter of mine near a weight room, he better be able to take a baseball bat to the head,” legendary trainer Angelo Dundee told Sports Illustrated’s Pat Putnam when asked about Shilstone’s plan for Spinks. Spinks would go on to beat Holmes twice, and Shilstone would become one of the leading voices in the high-performance industry, eventually having a hand in extending the careers of Serena Williams and Peyton Manning. However, even science loses out to Father Time and the forces of nature, as Spinks would be crushed in one round by Mike Tyson in the final bout of his career. But perhaps the best
weight classes to challenge Canelo toward – or maybe at – the end of his career is one born of circumstance but also necessity to satisfy a notoriously competitive soul. The colossal payday and promotional gap-bridging by Turki Alalshikh provided the resources to make the fight possible. However, the final act of Crawford’s career has been as much about making up for lost time and proving a long- insisted point as it has about banking generational wealth. For the bulk of his career, Crawford was promoted by Top Rank, and through no fault of his own, was sequestered from many of the contemporaries who the fan base wanted to see him fight. He fought, and dominated, the opposition available and became a fighter whose talent and exposure through the ESPN vehicle outpaced the name recognition on his resume. Ultimately, he and Errol Spence Jr. made a fight happen, and the questions about what would have
Dixon made boxing history at the turn of the 20th century.
example of the pitfalls of weighty ambition can come from Crawford’s upcoming opponent himself. In 2022, Canelo ventured up to light heavyweight to face then-WBA titleholder Dmitry Bivol. Contemporary reaction to the bout at the time suggested that Alvarez had chosen Bivol because he seemed like a weak titleholder and an easy way to stuff another trinket in his trophy case in Guadalajara. History has been kind to Canelo in that sense, as it turned out that Bivol was one of the trickiest opponents anyone could choose at
happened if Crawford had fought any of the welterweights of the same era were resoundingly answered. But there’s always been another contemporary alongside him in the pound-for-pound list, which is itself a kind of exercise in weight-jumping, built on fantasy and powered by debate. Part of that debate would be silenced by a win over Canelo, though another conversation would likely grow louder: the one about where Crawford ranks among the legends who risked it all before him.
Alvarez, like Foster before him, regrouped and went on to produce more stellar performances and history-making achievements, never once suggesting that the Bivol fight was anywhere near the end of the road for him. In Crawford’s case, the Omaha native has expressed his intent to retire soon and at various times has suggested he
RINGMAGAZINE.COM 125
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker